After more than two years in detention, the Cassation Court ordered Saturday the release of some students affiliated with Misr Al-Qawiya party’s student movement at Al-Azhar University.
Sameh Samir, a lawyer at the Egyptian Centre for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR), told Daily News Egypt on Sunday that a total of eight students were released, after previously being sentenced to three years in prison and a fine of EGP 100,000 per student.
The court scheduled the next hearing session in their case for 1 October, the Misr Al-Qaqiya students movement further reported on Facebook. Several students in the case received four-year jail terms, reduced to three years and fines of EGP 100,000 each.
The students were arrested on 12 January 2014, on charges of inciting violent incidents that led to clashes at Al-Azhar University, and belonging to the now banned Muslim Brotherhood.
Among the students was Yassin Sabry, who, according to the movement’s statements to Daily News Egypt, was arrested on 14 January while on his way to attend a mid-term exam. “He was previously sentenced to four years in prison, and then reduced to three, until the appeal on his verdict was finally accepted two weeks ago,” the movement explained.
A wave of large student demonstrations and violence erupted in the second half of 2013, following the ouster of former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. Hundreds of students were either jailed or expelled from their universities on charges of belonging to an illegal organisation, in reference to the Brotherhood which was declared a terrorist organisation. Since then, security presence has increased across universities.
